FBI probes 16-year-old Bend shooter’s online radicalization, apparent Nazi obsession

Key Points:

• A 16-year-old boy shot and killed three students and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, last Thursday, with investigations suggesting he may have been radicalized online by extremist groups and developed an obsession with Nazism.
• The FBI and local police are probing the teen’s interactions with violent extremist groups, including the faction known as 764 on Discord, which targets vulnerable youth through manipulation and coercion.
• The weapon used, a Mossberg Maverick 88 shotgun, was purchased by the shooter’s mother as a birthday gift; authorities have seized the teen’s electronics to analyze his online activity but have not filed charges against the mother.
• The attack involved the shooter firing multiple shots at a passing pickup truck before entering the school and killing three boys aged 5, 8, and 11, along with a teacher, and injuring two others in a special-needs classroom.
• Oregon law allows minors to possess long guns under certain conditions if transferred by a parent or guardian, and the FBI has previously warned about the violent extremist group 764’s increasing activity and recruitment of youth online.